The honour of leading the 2008 Players Championship fell last night to the US stalwart Kenny Perry but the glory after two days here belonged to Bernhard Langer, who revived memories of his glory days, and stirred unlikely dreams of a return to the Ryder Cup stage, with a stunning second round of 67 to vault into contention in the PGA Tour's flagship event.

The German, who plies his trade these days mostly on the cash machine for the over-50s known as the PGA Champions Tour, ran in six birdies and an eagle in a round which at one stage threatened to break all kinds of tournament records. Starting the day six shots adrift of the leaders, he had pulled level by the time he stepped off the 8th green - an astonishing effort on a truly treacherous course and one which left him poised to break the tournament record of 30 for the outward half.

Alas, when he might have been expected to birdie the par-five 9th he could only bogey. Still, going out in 31 was not exactly shabby, and it looked even more lustrous when the German picked up another birdie early on the back nine, at the 11th hole. But the best was yet to come.

On the par-three 17th - the beautiful, cruel corner of this classic course condemned by Ernie Els 24 hours earlier as being good for nothing other than being "blown up" - he rolled in a 60-foot putt for an outrageous birdie. "That was the highlight of the day," Langer said afterwards with typical understatement before heading to the physiotherapist's trailer to get treatment for his aching body. He ended the day with a 36-hole total of 139, five under par, one shot behind Perry.

It is stretching credulity to argue that the former European Ryder Cup captain will win tomorrow but at the very least his efforts served as a prod to the current captain, Nick Faldo, who was watching from the TV gantry and will be required to pick two players to complete his 12-man squad to face the US team this year. There is nothing in the rules that says he cannot pick a 50-year-old who plays the game with a long putter and iron resolve.

Likewise, Langer's performance could also be taken as an inadvertent rebuke to the younger Europeans who have made the trip to Sawgrass, most of whom spent the day battling to make the cut.

There were a couple exceptions to this miserable list, most notably Ian Poulter - who fell away with a second round of 74 - and Sergio García. The Spaniard had led the field by two shots overnight, an advantage which had gone by the time he stepped on to the 1st tee in the afternoon. He fell into second with an opening bogey after missing a short putt. Immediately the press-tent cheerleaders were penning apologies for first-round stories that heralded his overdue renaissance.

To his credit García hung in, even after missing another short one on the 2nd. A couple of six-footers for par seemed to restore a little confidence and when he holed an eight-footer on the 7th for birdie he positively beamed, as if suddenly reminded that the light he saw after his opening-day 66 was not, in fact, the 3.10 from Yuma coming down the tunnel.

By the time he reached the 17th tee García had a one-shot lead on the field but a hard bounce on the green saw his tee shot end up on the path leading to the island green. From there he made a double bogey. It was a setback but with Spaniard ending the day tied with Langer on five under par it was not enough to dissipate the feeling that he is poised to win a tournament for the first time since 2005.